Cora's Room: Wallpaper and Glue Removal

       I may have done a little happy dance when we started this project.  Goodbye hunting room!  As my husband took down the deer heads and moved the gun cabinet I realized some very sad news.  My husband loves borders.  The small strip of wallpaper basically was taunting me.  After some advice from some very smart bumpies, I attacked this first project of Cora's nursery.  If you have a border or wallpaper that needs removed, this is what worked very nicely for us.

What you'll need:  spray bottle, plain Dawn dish soap, white vinegar, a scraper, a sponge, and HOT water

Here's a before shot so you understand what was living down the hall from me.

First, we used Dawn and hot water in a spray bottle.  Spray small sections of the border then wipe with a rag.  Before it dries, use the scraper.  Once you get a good piece started, start pulling.  Repeat till done.  This room took my husband about 2 hours. 

Once he was done there was still areas of glue on the wall.  This time I used hot water and vinegar in the spray bottle.  Instead of spraying it on the wall, I just used a few sprays on a sponge.  A little elbow grease and the glue came right off.  Any normal human this would probably take about 30 minutes.  This anemic pregnant woman it took about an hour.

As a whole, it was a whole heck of a lot easier than I expected.  The end result:

Operation Keep Connor Busy

The past week or so, Connor has officially been acting like a toddler.  I spent the night researching on Pinterest, trying to find activities that would keep him occupied and lessen the whining.  This is what we did today.  I might add that all of this was done with a children's iheart station playing for dance party breaks.

#1 Pipe Cleaners and Colander

What a huge success!   He did this for 30 minutes straight.  It took him a little bit to figure out how to actually get them in the holes, but filling up the strainer was just as fun.

#2 fabric balls and cupcake pan
This one he liked to, just not as much as the first.  He "counted" as he placed each ball.  We practiced numbers and colors.  This kept him occupied for about 20 minutes.

#3 Play Doh
He actually liked playing with the cups more than the play doh.  Every time he would touch the play doh he'd look at me with this "ew" face.  I bought a set that had a truck which is a favorite of his right now so this was a solid 30 min plus of play.

#4 Stringing beads with play-doh and pipe cleaner
Big.  Fat.  Fail.  I saw this using fruit loops instead of beads as well, but he isn't quite there yet.  I ended up just stringing the beads myself and them letting him take them off and put them away.  This only gave me maybe 10 minutes.

I totally stole this idea

One of the moms on my birth month board does this on her blog and I'm totally stealing it. 

Pregnancy: 13 weeks

Weight Gain: 6 lbs  :(  but I gained that in the first week.

Gender:  The tech at my NT scan wouldn't even make a guess.  So for now my anatomy scan is scheduled for September 5th unless I can convince Mike to get an elective one earlier.  I promised I wouldn't ruin it this time by finding out myself at work.

Names:  I haven't really found any that I LOVE.  So far ones we've tossed around are Claire, Cora, Clayton, and I like Cole, but I'm not sure if his parents having a dog named Cole will let that fly.

Feeling:  Pretty cruddy.  I've had this dang cough since Connor and I went to visit Erin.  Its really getting old.  Now its back with a vengeance and I'm running a fever again.  I hate calling off work.  I think I've had more days off since this pregnancy then combined my 3 years there.

Movement:  There's been a few times that I thought I felt the baby, but I'm not sure.  Even during the NT scan baby was super active and I felt nothing so.....

Belly:

Next Appointment: I see the midwife at my new OB's tomorrow afternoon.  I'm hoping to talk to Dr Greenbaum though.



Telling the world

Well its finally facebook official.  I made this pic my profile picture.  Its crazy how nervous I was.

 

And my weekly pic

 

 

At 12 weeks 5 days I had my NT scan.  The MFM said baby looked great, but he wouldn't comment on the bleeds which pissed me off.  I really didn't think much of him and will probably request to see someone else if I have to go back.  He said starting Lovenox was up to me.  Um OK?  So I plan on talking to my OB at my next appointment.

 



A Trip to Minnesota

We rounded out the end of week 10 into week 11 with a visit to Minnesota to visit Angie, Dustin, and the kids.  I love going there because its so relaxing for me.  We kept pretty busy the entire time we were there, but I loved every minute of it.  I got to see the boys play frizbee golf for the first time.  A few hills about killed me, but it was really nice to get out.  We went to the beach and the race track and just hung out as a family.  Here are a couple pics from the trip as well as week 11 belly pic. 

Nothing is Ever Easy

I made it past all of my loss milestones!  The pessimistic part of my mind is still waiting for the worst, but I'm trying to stay positive.  Dr S says with this blood clotting thing I have, that I should be on Lovenox during pregnancy.  Thankfully the SCH finally resolved as of 9 weeks 5 days, but hey guess what?  I have a low lying placenta and a bunch of blood near my cervix.  As long as there is still bleeding so no Lovenox.  So through some miracle, our gummy bear is still fighting without any blood thinners on board.  At 9 weeks 2 days I decided to try out my doppler.  I was laying in the bathtub and after about 5 minutes I was able to find it!  A beautiful heartbeat of 135.  I screamed for Mike, who came running in.  He just rolled his eyes and said I would electrocute myself.  But I saw the look in his eyes.  Hope. 

My next US is on July 10th.  Hopefully we will graduate from Dr. S then.  I'm looking forward to knowing where I will deliver and if they will let me attempt to VBAC.  If the previa doesn't resolve, that won't be an option.  I'm trying not to think about that though.  I finally am starting to feel like this is going to happen.  I bought some gender neutral baby clothes from Baby Gap.  And I started my belly pics. 

Houston We Have a Hearbeat!

I can't believe I'm writing this.  Like literally cannot believe it.  After last week's ultrasound and the SCH I just figured that was it.  Mike wasn't able to make it to this appointment, so my mom ended up driving me.  That way if I got bad news I wouldn't have to drive myself home again.  We were three minutes late and it was so hard to not tell my mom to hurry up!  Dr S got me back into the ultrasound room in about 5 minutes.  The nice thing about him is you barely have time to get your clothes off before he comes in so you don't have to sit there naked forever waiting for him.

As soon as he started he blurted out "There's a heartbeat!"  He turned the monitor so I could see the flicker in our little bean.  You could still see the yolk sac.  He said I measured out to be 6 weeks 3 days.  This baby must have implanted really late.  By ovulation I should be 7 weeks 1 day and by LMP I am 6 weeks 5 days.  Dr S said that the SCH had shrunk from 25% to 5%. 

So the plan.....since the bleed isn't completely gone, I go back next Friday to monitor it.  If its gone then he will start me on Lovenox injections.  My progesterone has dropped from 20's to 12 so he prescribed suppositories twice a day.  Ugh.  But I'll do whatever he says.  My heart can't handle another loss.